Friday

Do you know there is a School in Lagos where Pupils smell others’ buttocks as punishment?

Nigerian parents have heard of myriad of punishments meted out to pupils in schools, but making them to smell one another’s buttocks appears to be taking punishment level to the limit. But this is what an angry parent, Mr. Saviour Iche, alleged said happened in his children’s school.

He urged the Lagos State Government to investigate Premier Fountain College, located at Ijegun Lagos.

He told News Telegraph thus “A teacher in that school once flogged my sevenyear- old son and inflicted bruises on him.Anytime I drew the attention of the management to the torture, they would beg. Torture and brutality of children are going on in the school; other students have complained. A particular teacher forced pupils to smell one another’s buttocks. I want the teacher responsible for brutalising my son to be investigated and made to face the wrath of the law.”

He further said: “It happened last year. My kid was three year plus. One of the kids in the class farted. The teacher ordered them to start smelling one another’s buttocks, to know who farted. My daughter refused. She was punished.”

Iche, who described himself as the National President of Citizens Protection and Enlightenment Initiative, a human rights organisation, further said he had heard of so many atrocious acts happening in the school, especially child brutality.

He said that whenever he goes to the school to confront the school over the insensitive punishment meted out to pupils, the school management would plead with him. He, however, now finally decided to jettison their pleas, after he returned home one fateful day and saw cane welts over the body of his 11-year-old son, a Junior Secondary School 1 student. Iche was infuriated after he asked his son who caned him and learned that it was a teacher in the school.

He claimed that but for the quick medical attention given by his wife, the boy would probably have died. The management of Premier Fountain College however, denied the allegations.

The school insisted that Iche’s son was disciplined because he and his sister teamed up to fight another student. Iche, who had already lodged a complaint at the Isheri Ijegun Police Station, Lagos State, said he decided to report the matter because this was the second time he would be seeing signs of torture on his kid’s bodies. He said: “My son who is a Junior Secondary School 1 student of the school, came home on Tuesday with bruises all over his body.

I asked him about the bruises. He said one of his teachers flogged and inflicted injures on him. After flogging him, the teacher dared him to go and report to his father. “I tried to find out from my son what led to such flogging. He told me that he and other students were rehearsing their end of year songs, when he started drumming. A senior student walked over and hit him for drumming.

My son ran out of the school, but the senior pursued him and further punched his stomach. He also hit my son close to his eye. While the senior was beating my son, my daughter, who is also a student in the school, came to her brother’s defence. This led to a fight between my daughter and the senior. When the teacher intervened and stopped the fight, he went on to flog the three of them.

The teacher refused to give my son a fair hearing. My son came home crying and his mother had to give him First Aid.” When Iche saw the welts on the boy’s body, he called the proprietor of the school, registered his displeasure and later went to the police station to report. The proprietor of the school, Mr. Femi Martins denied that Iche’s son was brutalised. He also denied that pupils were ever compelled to smell one another’s buttocks after one of them farts. He said any teacher who does that would be sacked. He further said: “It’s not true that his son was brutalised.

The teacher in question only disciplined the boy and others for fighting. As I’m speaking with you, the boy has resumed in his class. Two of his children, Esther and Emmanuel, fought with a student called Bolade. Prefects tried to move them to staff room, but they continued to fight. What is the teacher supposed to do? He used cane to stop them. Mr. Saviour came, said he saw a mark on his son, Emmanuel.

The parents of the other boy didn’t come to complain. We apologised to him. Even in our homes, nobody would order anyone to smell others’ buttocks, let alone in school and in this age because someone farted! Children can say anything, but parents should not act on everything they say. Parents should listen to other sides of the incident.”